[[Fortunately our family Adjusted Gross Income (Salaries and fund distributions) will be a little over $100k this year. Unfortunately, that means no Regular IRA to Roth IRA conversion can be done at THIS time.]]

Right you are, Greg.

[[ I was wondering if during retirement when income can be 'controlled' somewhat about doing conversions then.]]

I'm not sure that I follow you here. But let's look at the questions and see what develops...

[[ 1) Should you convert as quickly as possible while still trying to stay in the lowest tax bracket ?]]

In general, and in my opinion, the answer would be yes. But there are so many factors to consider in conversion to a Roth IRA that you can't focus simply on age and tax bracket. Generally speaking, the conversion works better for younger taxpayers, but there are also reasons (primarily estate tax reasons) that older taxpayers may want to convert...even if it means paying more in tax dollars right now...and potentially overall.

[[ 2) If I wait until 70 1/2 and have to take 'mandatory distributions' can those just be rolled into a Roth IRA at that time ?]]

Nope. Your minimum required distributions (MRD) are funds that you are required to remove from your IRA account, and are not subject to be converted to a Roth IRA. The good news is, in year 2005, those MRDs will not count against the $100k AGI limitation for conversion purposes.

No. If you are subject to the MRD rules, you must first take your MRD for the year. Then, any balance remaining in your IRA can be converted to a Roth IRA (assuming that you otherwise qualify).

You might want to drift on over to a great tax site (http://www.fairmark.com) which discusses these Roth IRA issues in greater detail.

Hope this helps to answer your questionsTMF TaxesRoy

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